Five Muscle Building Mistakes

Putting on pounds of pure muscle is a challenge. Especially if you are not an "easy gainer." To gain mass a lot of factors have to be just right. Your diet, exercise technique and even your sleep can directly affect your results.

Here are FIVE common body building mistakes

1. Not eating enough. To gain muscle you need to feed muscle. The food you eat will grow in to muscle and increase mass. You should be eating at least 500 extra calories a day to accumulate a pound of weight gain a week. A typical weight lifting diet can contain around 3500-4000 calories. It's also important to put weight on by eating "clean" and healthy food. Grilled chicken, fish and other low fat protein, brown rice, egg whites and beans are good examples of the food you should be putting in to your body. Also, a low fat diet is not desirable for mass gaining. So make sure you get some healthy fats in there too.

2. Not lifting enough. To gain mass you must lift heavy enough to fatigue your muscles at around 8-12 reps. You also need to perform at least 3-6 sets of most exercises for major muscle groups. Working out everyday doing a straight set full, body routine will not result in big muscles. If you find it difficult to challenge yourself properly, hire a personal trainer to make sure you are working out at a 9/10 intensity every time.

3. Not concentrating on technique. If you just go to the gym and fly through each set, you are not getting the most out of your routines. Remember to control your reps. This means, no swinging and no body momentum. Keep each rep slow and controlled and always remember to squeeze the muscle at the point of contraction. An example of this would be to tense your bicep during a bicep curl, when the weight is at your shoulder.

4. Not Enough Rest and Sleep. This point is a two in one. Muscle grows while you sleep. It also grows in between days at the gym. The recovery process is crucial to muscle building success. Your body needs 48 hours in between a weight workout to recover properly. You also need to sleep for 6-8 hours a night, to release growth hormones. Remember, more is not always better.

5. Not keeping track. You should keep a food and exercise log. This is a fantastic fitness tool. Keeping a workout journal ensures you do not make the same mistakes twice. With this, you can evaluate everything from long term progress to high and low energy levels in the gym based on the your daily eating habits. Keeping a journal keeps you stay focused and in control of your results.

Building muscle can take a long time but it will take even longer if you make any of these common mistakes. All factors come in to play when you want bigger muscles and you can't leave anything out, for optimal results. To get the physique you have always wanted, you have to keep at it, eat clean and lift hard.

Go For It!